'Mistral, a life', by Elizabeth Horan: profile of the woman from a small town who made herself

The writer Elizabeth Horan, author of 'Mistral, a life', edited by Lumen.Lorena Palavecino (Penguin Rando

The first volume of a complete biography of the Chilean writer Gabriela Mistral (born Lucila Godoy Alcayaga) is published, announced in three volumes with the title

Mistral.

A life.

The first, which we review here, covers the first 33 years of its author, from 1889 to 1922, and its title —

Only the one who loves me finds me

— borrows an octosyllable from the author, belonging to an unpublished poem collected in

Almácigo

(2015 ).

The author of the biography is an American academic, a professor at the University of Arizona, who in recent years has shown great interest in the Chilean poet, editor of the correspondence with Victoria Ocampo (

Precious letters

, Renacimiento, 2019) and of articles that I can't stop at.

To summarize, Mistralian studies took a turn in 2007, following the decision made by Doris Atkinson, niece of Doris Dana, executor of the poet, and who was left in charge of her enormous archives when Dana died.

Although the latter had jealously guarded them, hindering her consultation, Atkinson made the opposite decision, donating all the material to the National Library of Chile.

To do this, she requested the help, among others, of Elizabeth Horan, who could be said to have remained committed to the figure of Gabriela Mistral: the surprise that the sensuality and frankness of her poetry could have caused and did cause at the time, not only the love of her famous

Sonnets of Death

, but, above all, the one related to the fact of being a single woman who knew herself to be manly and unattractive (although with wonderful green, almost transparent eyes), but with an enormous poetic talent.

Both things would condition her way of being in the world, when the world still maintained an attitude of open hostility to women writers and lesbianism could only be spoken of in a low voice and never in a good way.

An experience that is undoubtedly traumatizing and explains many escapist and truth-masking behaviors.

Mistral would also flee from one place to another, leaving behind many questions, but what is important is the success and authority with which these vital movements were produced.

Those familiar with Mistral's biography will be aware of the most substantial episodes in this volume: his traumatic expulsion from school at the age of 11;

the commotion caused in 1914 by the

Sonnets of Death,

which then linked the young woman to the suicide of Romelio Ureta;

the complex correspondence maintained with Manuel Magallanes Moure (the most interesting part of the book);

Her efforts as a national teacher in various places in Chile, carefully described here.

This first installment closes with the departure of Mistral to Mexico requested by José Vasconcelos, although without forgetting the decisive intervention of the poet and diplomat Enrique González Martínez.

The impression is that Horan handles a documentation that surpasses him and, conscious of having to fit together the many pieces of a puzzle, he sometimes gets lost in digressions and anticipations of what is to come.

That is to say, the story does not always flow with due clarity.

And to this we must add the author's point of view.

At the beginning Horan warns us that she will use the methodology of the Anglo-Saxon school applied to “a Latin American subject.”

I don't know what kind of warning it is, but having read the book I understand it much better: it is about writing the life of Gabriela Mistral taking into account two very Anglo-Saxon challenges: answering the question of how a woman born in a remote town of Chile to make herself (the classic American model) and write her life based on her lesbianism.

The latter has repercussions in passages in which the interference of

queer

theory is excessive, even in some cases out of place.

More interesting is Horan's effort to respond to the Chilean's strategies to make her way in life, which involve weaving from the beginning and with great cunning a very convenient network of relationships with people who could help her promote her job position or literary.

Calculation and sensitivity go hand in hand with her and this could be a hasty conclusion to her fascinating personality.

The translation of the English original deserves a point and a separate point, which is difficult to fit into the Spanish ear.

There are phrases that are simply not understood and it is not known if the problem lies with the author or with the translator, the Chilean writer Jaime Collyer.

Referring to Rudig we read: “(Being an adult and accustomed more to organizing, speaking, painting and drawing than to writing, since 1930 Rudig nevertheless wrote several letters.”

A biography in several volumes is a very risky bet: with the exception of lives that acquired great historical significance, the arguments must necessarily be lengthened to justify the project.

The overwhelming list of acknowledgments makes it clear, when only those corresponding to the first volume occupy several pages.

We will see.

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